Tag Archives: holidays

Aaaaannnndddd we’re back! I know the “holidays” aren’t really over until after New Years Eve, but my house is eerily quiet and I have to go back to the office so it feels like things are at least a bit “over”. I had such a great Christmas, and I wanted to share a bit of the second part of my week with you guys. Enjoy!

Christmas Eve and Day were a blur of cooking, cleaning, laughing and visiting with family. It was absolutely wonderful to have a full house for the first time in forever. My Uncle Brian won the prize for “Best Gift” with the Himalayan Rock Salt Lamp he made for my mother. She has been wanting a larger one ever since she got her tiny side table lamp and we all agreed that this was the prettiest one we’d ever seen.

Unfortunately, half of our visitors had to head home on Friday, but Andy and I took my mom and step dad to the Tallahassee Museum… after I fortified myself with a large mug of tea in my new favorite “Cat Mom” mug, of course. It was the perfect day to be out and about: sunny, but still cool enough for walking around to be enjoyable. All of the animals were enjoying the good weather as well; we got to watch the otter frolic around in his pond and the red wolves were having a blast playing tag. Even the farm animals were walking around their pens making happy sounds.

One of the best parts of the week was the mother daughter day my mom and I planned. We kicked things off with breakfast at Liams’ with two giant bowls of coffee and orange scented doughnuts. Then came quite a bit of shopping, most of it was window shopping, but we still had a blast. After we walked around enough to feel like our feet were about to fall off, we picked the boys up for dinner out. My poor mom was so tuckered out, she fell asleep in front of the fire. Apparently, the couch wasn’t close enough so she had to make her own place to lounge.

I can’t believe it, it’s finally Christmas!!! Almost, but you guys know what I mean. The halls are decked, the gifts are wrapped, and the family is arriving. Aside from a little grocery shopping, we are ready to kick the celebrating into high gear! The cat’s are completely freaked. Yes the Christmas tree is super exciting and tasty, but there are all these strange cat toys hanging from it that mean mommy won’t let them play with. And there are strangers in the house, clearly they mean to kill them and steal their kibble, BEWARE! Yep, nothing like 20lbs of giant orange cat frantically trying to hide be hind your legs whenever the door bell rings. We are making a bit of progress though, our guest have been distributing special kitty treats, and now only 3 of the 6 are truly in holiday panic mode.

Yeah, I have a reindeer thing. I don’t know why, maybe something to do with the majestic antlers. Andy limits me to one a year so we don’t end up with boxes of them. And no you’re not seeing things, that card does indeed have a cat nativity scene on it. Andy’s brother Ben, and his girlfriend Karen, sent it to us, and I think it is the best card we’ve ever received. I might have to recreate it with our cat’s faces photoshopped in for next year.

Thanksgiving is next week, which means November is almost over; when did this happen!? Even though I am currently in the process of doing laundry, locating our suitcases, cleaning the house, I am also trying for find some time to run to the mall. The impending week long trip will land Andy and I in a couple different cities and at a few different holiday tables. Since these lovely people are feeding us, and in some cases letting us stay with them, I think it is only polite to bring them a little gift to thank them for their hospitality. My host/hostess gift of choice is something indulgent that helps the recipient relax after they finally have the house back to themselves. Below are some of my top choices:

Everything on this list comes in under $50, I know this time of year gets expensive and coming up with addition money for extracurricular gifts can be tough. If you aren’t label conscious you could probably even, with a bit of luck and savvy shopping, find versions of these choices for $20 or less.

I think it’s great that Halloween is on a Friday this year. How is a person supposed to do anything fun after work on a Tuesday? Especially knowing you have to go into the office the next day. Not that my Halloweens are super crazy, but the trick-or-treaters alone are out until as late as 10:30-11 sometimes. I don’t have any big plans yet, other than the going to the party at my office, but to get in the mindset, I decided to share a few of my favorite things/memories of this the spookiest of holidays.

Favorite Halloween Tradition When I Was a Kid: The Halloween carnival at my elementary school. Games, prizes, costumes, cakes and candy? What’s not to love?

Favorite Halloween Tradition Now: Passing out candy. I don’t care how great your costume as a grown up you’ve got nothing on the tiny ones. We had a kid come by as the Lorax last year, and he was so cute I would have given him all the candy if he’d asked. His dad was dressed up as a tree.

I hope you are all having a wonderful day filled with family, friends and good food. Here in the Bucior household we’ve opened gifts, made breakfast and now we are working on lunch. The cats are very interested in the wrapping paper and all of the interesting smells coming from the kitchen. It has been a wonderful morning and promises to be a lovely afternoon/evening. Merry Merry Merry Christmas Everyone!